The management of an Internet Data Center (IDC) is generally achieved by several entities being functionally and physically different and having no relationship between them: an Information Technology and Networking Management System (IT&N), a Building Management System (BMS) and a Facility Management System (FMS).
The BMS monitors all systems related to the site such as access control, fire protection, and intruder protection. Specific drivers can integrate specific equipment such as Uninterruptible Power Systems (UPS), chillers or other equipment that is part of the IDC Site installation. A BMS is a structured, organized and integrated system that easily supervises the entire IDC site infrastructure and thus provides a unified management. It integrates and manages all the Site related available data and verifies that their values are in predefined ranges. It may launch corrective actions and may provide emergency services in case of detected problems. The user can easily participate in the decisions by accessing a collection of documents related to all site system malfunctions such as geographical location, alarm lists and texts, and graphical value views of each detector.
The FMS supervises all needs related to the Site asset management and facility descriptions. It maintains up to date all geographical views and information about equipment (IT and non IT), furniture and building space. With an FMS, an organization may use one source for all its facility information needs. The FMS allows the manipulation of drawings, reports, requests and different layer views with intuitive navigation to any device in any of the drawings and display of detailed information about that object. Moreover, FMS is provided with maintenance and inventory functions.
The IT&N is used to administer small and large IT infrastructures. This entity has evolved with more specific modules highly targeting the Internet Data Center management requirements. It is divided into two parts. The first part is the OSS (Operational Support Service), and the second part is related to resources such as asset management, network, material, and applications. This implementation is sometimes called IS (Integrated Solutions) because it is a structured, organized and integrated system that easily supervises the entire IDC infrastructure and thus provides a unified IT system management.
The central point of IT&N is constituted by the Operational Support Services (OSS) which are key services for a successful implementation of an IDC. It is this system that gives the personality and the efficiency to the Internet Data Center, serving as the glue between all the management components. It allows a service-oriented business implementation of the IDC management platform and creates a competitive advantage by managing the Service Delivery through an integrated, management solution. It is today critical to offer very high availability to a mission-critical infrastructure such as an IDC. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are becoming key commitments required in a customer's contract, with guaranteed compensation if specified levels of availability, speed and bandwidth are not met.
An OSS is often built today using IT and Networking management platforms such as “TIVOLI” (IBM trademark) or “Computer Associate”. In order to integrate the Site management requirements into the OSS, several functions are generally added. Site management applications such as GPAX (IBM trademark) and Aperture (Aperture trademark) which are capable of communicating with other applications, can be the right addition to the OSS platform. Each application brings new added value, defines skills and create an effective global management platform where all the dependencies can be covered (Site infrastructure, IT infrastructure and Networking).
The set of applications selected fulfill the groupware concept for an OSS. However, none comply with the previous integration criteria to create a single groupware environment for an improved OSS platform. Full scalability and easy adaptation to one or several sites requires specific capabilities that many site management applications do not have. Some look simple for small configurations but become very complex in large-scale environments. Others are highly capable of supporting a defined set of requirements but are very poor regarding data communication to support the groupware environment. For an IDC, the data transfer, data storage and data processing must be highly secured and efficient.
Japanese patent JP 07023479 entitled “Building Automation System” (BAS) discloses a method that could be nearly a BMS. It relates to an institution management apparatus for multistory building which converts a point address contained in alarm information into a symbol expressing apparatus, area and floor classification. In large installations, all HVAC components (sensors, counters, contacts, etc.) are connected via a DDC/PMS (Direct Digital Control/Programmable Management System) unit to a BAS and the BAS is connected to the BMS. This patent considers management of only the HVAC components (for example air conditioning, or power supply equipment). In fact, many BMS manage several subsystems like HVAC but also access control, intruder alarm system, and fire alarm systems. A powerful user interface is provided, which gives access to schematics and symbols. The schematics are graphical views (e.g. ground plan of a floor, or the block circuit diagram of an air-conditioning system) or displays of field points which are updated dynamically. The field point definition determines the position of the detector in the schematic, and which appearance and information it has to have. A field point can be defined as an active button; clicking on the button brings up an emergency list, for example, or may be area and floor classification.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,068 discloses a method to collect information about various parameters such as humidity, and temperature. These environmental parameters are measured with a portable device and registered together with information giving the time and location of each measurement. The readings are interrelated parameters, e.g. temperature and relative humidity. They can be subjected to corrections such as linearization. A keyboard on the device enables the instantaneous read-out of a selected parameter on a common display panel, or the detection of dangerous concentrations of noxious gasses may set off an alarm.
This US patent as well as the above Japanese patent relate only to one part of the overall fulfilling requirements for the complete groupware solution. Indeed, since each part of the IDC operation is run by a different organization with specific roles and competencies, there is no structured relationship between the various management systems. The Site FMS has little or even no groupware action on the IT&N. The interrelations that allow committing and managing the Service Level Agreement (SLA) are not captured by the FMS, and the BMS thus creates major operation risks and increases the cost of establishing the right availability of the IDC. This issue is also true between the BMS and the IT&N in regard to the alarms in various fields of the facility and the impact into the IT operation. This kind of situation reduces interoperability and creates operational deficiencies, communication difficulties and delay problems.